Pastoral Regions

Latest News from the Regional Pastoral Council

Posted on Wednesday March 29, 2006

Minutes from the Our Lady of the Angels Regional Council Meeting of January 17, 2006

OUR LADY OF THE ANGELES REGIONAL OFFICES
5835 WEST SLAUSON AVENUE
CULVER CITY, CALIFORNIA 90004

REGIONAL COUNCIL MEETING MINUTES – January 17, 2006

Meeting called to order at 7:10 p.m. by John Fisher.

Members Present: Bishop Clark, Dn. Scott Palmer, Mary Kosalka, Kelly Sellers, LaVerne Andrews, Sr. Pauline MacDonald, Linda Watts, John Fisher, Andrew Knox, Hortense Bradley, Carolyn Wallace, Caitlin Morais, Fr. Jim Barnes, Peter Wong, Fr. Daniel Barica, Berenice Escobedo, Joy Eliseo

Members Absent: , Oscar Rodriguez, Fr. Dario Miranda, Fr. Brian Castaneda, Alex Moran, Dn. Manny Martinez, Lorraine de Jesus, Dn. Felix Rac, Saul Guzman, Dn. Hosea Alexander

Also Present: Dn. Dave Estrada

Opening prayer was led by Andrew Knox, Joy Eliseo, and Berenice Escobedo.

Pastoral Council Workshop
Dn. Scott announced that the Regional Council has been invited by the Synod Implementation Office to conduct the prayer service at the March 4th Pastoral Council workshop. Carolyn Wallace and Linda Watts have been pulling together the components of the prayer service. Carolyn Wallace noted that the focus of the prayer service is to celebrate the diversity of the region. The prayer service will be bilingual English and Spanish with the “Our Father�? being said in many languages. A sign up sheet was passed around for Regional Council members to sign up their availability to participate in the Workshop and any languages they could say the “Our Father�? in. A need for volunteers to help out with the environment is particularly needed. Carolyn Wallace also mentioned that the service will start with the “Here I am Lord�?. There is a budget for musicians. Linda Watts mentioned that Ed Hilley should be contacted for African music.

Bishop Clark

Bishop Clark reported on changes in the region affecting administration of parishes. The pastor of St. Agatha resigned and is currently on active leave. Between now and June 30th, Sister Karen Collier, SSL, the lay pastoral associate, is now the acting parish life director (PLD). Two Trinitarian fathers from New Orleans are now in the Archdiocese and one of them will be serving as the priest minister. The other priest has been assigned as the Chaplain at Nazareth House. Msgr. Dave O’Connell from St. Michael’s is on sabbatical in Texas. Sr. Faith Clark is temporarily serving as the PLD. Dn. Willard Hall will potentially serve as the PLD for St. Eugene’s parish.

Bishop Clark spoke about having all parishes fill out the Parish Viability Survey which will provide the data to discern which model of parish restructuring to employ at each parish. The surveys are due June 1st. The overall report will come from the focus groups at each parish. Each parish is asked to provide rationale for their top three parish restructuring preferences. The data will be utilized in a November summit meeting with Cardinal Mahony, the regional bishops, the deans and archdiocesan leadership.

Sr. Pauline raised the question of parish being honest in filling out the survey – some parishioners are afraid of making their parish look bad based on their answers. Bishop Clark responded that the answers to each individual question on the survey will be kept within the parish; only the overall scores and related conclusions will be more broadly reported.

The Structures and Governance Committee is tasked with how to bridge the gap between the data received from the parish reports and how to apply models of parish restructuring that will be discussed at the November meeting. The Bishops and Deans will need to be prepared to get a sense of each Pastoral Region. The Structures and Governance Committee will need to establish a task force to analyze the data, and to communicate the results of the analysis to the Deans and other regional representatives.

Bishop Clark requested that Regional Council members start contacting each parish to see how the progress is going on completing the viability study. Members on the council representing each deanery should start calling the parishes within their deanery in February.

Second Priority – School of Ministry
Dn. Scott Palmer reminded the council that in order to provide recommendations for a School of Ministry, it is important to understand what is already out there. Council members should be working outside of the meetings to collect information on existing formation and bring the information back to the Regional Council meetings. What is key for Regional Council members to bring the meetings is the unique needs of the region.

A roundtable of current coordinators of formation programs was on schedule for the next Regional Council Meeting. John Fisher and Caitlin Morais explained that the objective would be to bring presenters to talk about the challenges of running formation programs especially within the region. The goal would be to provide insight into issues that are specific to the region when running a formation program. Speakers will be identified based on the reports provided at the November meeting by Committee members.

Kelly Sellers asked Dn. Dave Estrada about the progress of establishing a School of Ministry. Sr. Mary Elizabeth Gault has been appointed to coordinate the establishment of a School of Ministry and she is looking to bring Regional Council members to the table to voice the particular regional aspects that affect an Archdiocese-wide School of Ministry.

Fr. Jim Barnes mentioned that in 1997 the Assembly of Priests proposed a regional-based Theology 101 program. He cautioned that members should be clear on who the target is for the School of Ministry; are we targeting leaders or a broader audience? The Vision in 1997 was the need for regional based training centers for theology. Carolyn Wallace added that all those in ministry need a basic formation. LaVerne Andrews added that the basic philosophy or mission of the School of Ministry needs to be set first so that all participants are on the same page.

New Business
The November 17th meeting minutes were approved as submitted with some corrections to names cited. Council members will email name corrections to Caitlin Morais.

Dn. Scott Palmer asked all council members to review the Synod web page. He stressed that council members have to be familiar with Synod documents which represent the will of the people. The regional office has a web page which is currently under construction. As of now, the minutes to each regional council meeting are posted there. People are reading and reacting to the minutes.

One question is how to inform parishes directly on the work and deliberations of the regional council. One current proposal is to send out a letter to all parishes. John Fisher passed out long and short versions of the letter to be sent out. He asked council members to read both versions and to submit their feedback to Caitlin Morais. The longer letter could be presented at the March 4th workshop to parish council members. The shorter version could be circulated among parishioners via parish bulletins and would need to be translated into Spanish as well.

Next Meeting

The next meeting will be March 21st, 2006 at 7:00pm.

Sr. Pauline MacDonald gave the closing prayer.

There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 9:03 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Caitlin Morais